The present invention relates to means for controlling environments in medical treatment applications, and more particularly to an enclosure for maintaining an enriched oxygen and/or vapor environment in the region about a patient's head and upper body.
Nebulized vapor or mist is widely recognized as an effective therapy to alleviate the symptoms of croup, asthma and upper respiratory disease in general. Devices for providing moist air therapy are available for hospital and household settings. In hospitals, the typical approach is to employ an oxygen tent constructed of flexible, pliable and transparent plastic sheeting or film, draped over a bed to form an enclosure surrounding at least the upper body of the patient. Oxygen is supplied to the tent interior, usually at a controlled, steady rate. The oxygen supplied to the tent can be humidified and medicated to the extent desired. In such arrangements, it is particularly difficult to monitor the temperature of such a tent, so that the patient within the tent can be maintained in a comfortable condition. The usual practice to monitor the temperature within the tent is to employ a glass mercury or alcohol thermometer which is held by a medical professional in an aperture in the tent to thereby measure the temperature within the tent so that the temperature can be controlled.
There is such a tent arrangement on the market that includes a pocket to hold the breakable, glass mercury or alcohol thermometer so that medical personnel do not have to hold the breakable thermometer to measure the temperature within the tent.
The employment of breakable thermometers, such as mercury and alcohol thermometers, are dangerous for the personnel handling the thermometer as well as the patient should the thermometer break and allow the mercury or alcohol to escape to the interior of the tent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,998 discloses a humidity concentrating tent which has no provisions for monitoring the temperature within the tent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,630 discloses apparatus for heat therapy by inhalation which does provide arrangements for measuring the temperature within the inhalation apparatus which consists of a bimetallic strip thermometer that extends through the inhalation device from the outside to the inside thereof.
Neither of these patents disclose a temperature sensitive strip secured to a surface of the tent itself to measure the temperature within a tent or inhalation device.